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March, 2025 - Issue #238
Look through your phone and you'll notice a rhythm to life in Santa Clarita. This time of year, you take photos of hikes at Placerita Canyon. Summer means slideshows from graduations or from trips to such exotic beach locales as Santa Monica and Ventura. And soon enough, the holidays come around, marked by a spike in cheerful, emoji-filled texts to people you don't speak to the rest of the year. It takes a literal force of nature to disrupt this cycle, but that's exactly what happened in January. Suddenly, there was only one thing to think about, and we're going to be dealing with it for a long time to come.
Fires to the South
The fires that struck Los Angeles in January bore the unmistakable signature of the city. They were whipped up with hurricane-force Santa Ana winds. As they burned, the national news was obliged to explain that rugged hills and canyons were just part of the urban fabric, not remote wilderness. Traffic that's barely functional in the best of times buckled utterly in the crisis. The EPA's incident commander anticipated the largest clean-up of hazardous lithium batteries "in the history of the world" - fallout from so many Teslas and electronics. Celebrities like Anthony Hopkins, Paris Hilton, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Adam Brody, Mandy Moore, Billy Crystal and Brad Paisley lost their homes, giving a sense of the neighborhoods that were destroyed. At least 29 people died in fires that were impossibly fast and far-reaching.
In late January, Governor Newsom approved $2.5 billion in relief for the fires, but that's only a small fraction of the total losses. And while recovery will surely take many years, LA is hosting World Cup matches in 2026, the Super Bowl in 2027 and the International Olympic Games in 2028. The next few years seem truly make or break as LA recovers from its far too real Hollywood movie-scale disaster.
Fire to the North
The Hughes Fire happened so recently that it's not worth re-telling the very fresh history. After so much anxious watching and waiting, it felt like the other shoe had dropped. Suddenly the saga that had been playing out to our south became a much closer threat coming from the north. You may well have been among the thousands who evacuated or who got ready to evacuate. And now, there are scars over 16 square miles surrounding Castaic Lake, sparing only the western side of the lake and lagoon. Can you imagine if all that water and all those firefighters hadn't been there?
While the fires are out, another fire-related conversation is still burning. During the windy weeks this winter, there were "Public Safety Power Shutoffs" that affected many Claritans. The shutoffs are intended to reduce the ignition danger posed by power infrastructure, but losing electricity for days can impact daily routines, work, medical equipment and more. Mayor Bill Miranda has been outspoken in demanding better communication and better solutions in recent meetings with Public Utilities Commission staff, but it's not clear what might change. Fires are bad, shutoffs are bad and solutions are wanting.
Fire Season
Remember those rhythms I talked about? Well, we're in the midst of spring time, which is undeniably lovely for the brief weeks (days?) that it lasts. Next comes summer fire season, when the normally idyllic sights of barbecues, backyard fire pits and fireworks set Claritans on edge. Next comes fall and the usual start of the Santa Ana winds, historically the season of many major SoCal fires. Then, hopefully, comes rain, which will bring respite or house-consuming mudslides down fire-scarred hills, depending on the prior few months.
With such a challenging calendar to begin with, adding the wild card of earthquakes - geologists say we're overdue for a big one - may seem too much. Is it really worth paying around a million dollars for an average home that could be devoured by wind, fire, earth - or perhaps all three? The short answer is yes. I know this because, despite devastating losses in LA and many difficult and fearful days in Santa Clarita, the prevailing conversation is about helping neighbors and rebuilding, not getting out. Whether Santa Claritans heart the land, their way of life, or their communities, people have found something in SCV worth fighting to protect.
This column is intended as satire and a (sometimes successful) attempt at humor. Suggestions and catty comments intended for the author can be e-mailed to iheartscv@insidescv.com.
"I know this because, despite devastating losses in LA
and many difficult and fearful days in Santa Clarita, the prevailing conversation is about helping neighbors and REBUILDING, not getting out."
and many difficult and fearful days in Santa Clarita, the prevailing conversation is about helping neighbors and REBUILDING, not getting out."
The fires that struck Los Angeles in January bore the unmistakable signature of the city. They were whipped up with hurricane-force Santa Ana winds. As they burned, the national news was obliged to explain that rugged hills and canyons were just part of the urban fabric, not remote wilderness. Traffic that's barely functional in the best of times buckled utterly in the crisis. The EPA's incident commander anticipated the largest clean-up of hazardous lithium batteries "in the history of the world" - fallout from so many Teslas and electronics. Celebrities like Anthony Hopkins, Paris Hilton, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Adam Brody, Mandy Moore, Billy Crystal and Brad Paisley lost their homes, giving a sense of the neighborhoods that were destroyed. At least 29 people died in fires that were impossibly fast and far-reaching.
In late January, Governor Newsom approved $2.5 billion in relief for the fires, but that's only a small fraction of the total losses. And while recovery will surely take many years, LA is hosting World Cup matches in 2026, the Super Bowl in 2027 and the International Olympic Games in 2028. The next few years seem truly make or break as LA recovers from its far too real Hollywood movie-scale disaster.
Fire to the North
The Hughes Fire happened so recently that it's not worth re-telling the very fresh history. After so much anxious watching and waiting, it felt like the other shoe had dropped. Suddenly the saga that had been playing out to our south became a much closer threat coming from the north. You may well have been among the thousands who evacuated or who got ready to evacuate. And now, there are scars over 16 square miles surrounding Castaic Lake, sparing only the western side of the lake and lagoon. Can you imagine if all that water and all those firefighters hadn't been there?
While the fires are out, another fire-related conversation is still burning. During the windy weeks this winter, there were "Public Safety Power Shutoffs" that affected many Claritans. The shutoffs are intended to reduce the ignition danger posed by power infrastructure, but losing electricity for days can impact daily routines, work, medical equipment and more. Mayor Bill Miranda has been outspoken in demanding better communication and better solutions in recent meetings with Public Utilities Commission staff, but it's not clear what might change. Fires are bad, shutoffs are bad and solutions are wanting.
Fire Season
Remember those rhythms I talked about? Well, we're in the midst of spring time, which is undeniably lovely for the brief weeks (days?) that it lasts. Next comes summer fire season, when the normally idyllic sights of barbecues, backyard fire pits and fireworks set Claritans on edge. Next comes fall and the usual start of the Santa Ana winds, historically the season of many major SoCal fires. Then, hopefully, comes rain, which will bring respite or house-consuming mudslides down fire-scarred hills, depending on the prior few months.
With such a challenging calendar to begin with, adding the wild card of earthquakes - geologists say we're overdue for a big one - may seem too much. Is it really worth paying around a million dollars for an average home that could be devoured by wind, fire, earth - or perhaps all three? The short answer is yes. I know this because, despite devastating losses in LA and many difficult and fearful days in Santa Clarita, the prevailing conversation is about helping neighbors and rebuilding, not getting out. Whether Santa Claritans heart the land, their way of life, or their communities, people have found something in SCV worth fighting to protect.
This column is intended as satire and a (sometimes successful) attempt at humor. Suggestions and catty comments intended for the author can be e-mailed to iheartscv@insidescv.com.
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